Upgrading 2011 MBP storage to SSD + HDD

[freshlycutfries]

I have a Late 2011 mbp that is aging and I'm looking to breathe new life into her. So, I've bought a 500GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD to increase my speeds. I also bought a hard drive caddy for the optical bay to swap my old HDD into.

So I'd like your advice on the best route for me to go, and any advice you might have for me that I might not have seen in my preliminary research.

I have an external enclosure, and also a new 2TB external I can backup to. My Macbook is a Late 2011, 2.8GHz i7 running 10.12 Sierra.

Question one, would a fresh OS install to the SSD be worth it? Would it be a huge headache to drag over all my programs and settings with migration assistant?

Or, question two, would it be better to CCC clone my HDD to my SSD and then swap?

I have 660GB of 750GB used on my HDD, 250GB of which is TV shows and movie media that can be left on the HDD, ie. I can fit everything on my current drive onto the new drive. Could I do this with CCC seamlessly? And if I did move everything over except the movies, would it be best to backup the movies, then wipe the HDD, then restore the movies? Or is there a better way?

Also, should I enable TRIM? I've heard differing opinions on if it's necessary. If I should, when should I do it?

I know there's a lot of questions here, but your expertise is much appreciated!

 

[esk]

You can create a Time Machine backup of your current installation.

Then you can use a USB installer to install Mac OS on your new SSD. After the installation is complete just run Migration Assistant to restore everything you would like from your Time Machine backup.

 

[Bravo3013]

I would not recommend a clean/fresh install unless you need to (example having problems or a lot of junk on it).
You can use CCC to seamlessly clone your content on the HDD to the SSD.
You should also backup your system before doing anything, this will minimise the chance of dataloss.
TRIM is not needed on newer macOS versions like 10.12.

Edit: If you need guides on how to swap the HDD, check out the guides on ifixit: https://www.ifixit.com/Search?query=Macbook+pro+late+2011

 

[Twariq]

I have just upgraded my HDD to SSD and I used the same type Samsung 850 Evo and I clone my SSD with my existing hard drive and this made everything so much easier, when I finished installing the new cloned SSD the MacBook fired up exactly like normal but much, much faster, I also used Carbon copy cloner and can recommend this as a very simple way of doing this upgrade.